Falling For Fred
by LittleBluebelle
Summary: The Battle of Hogwarts has been over for a year and Hermione Granger is left feeling heartbroken and burdened with the pain of regret. She never got the chance to tell Fred Weasley how she truly felt. But when Professor McGonagall turns up at the Burrow with an old Time Turner and a warning, Hermione is given a choice. What would the old Hermione Granger do?
1. Chapter 1

"'No-no-no"

"No! Fred! No!"

She watched as Percy shook his brother, willing him to wake. Ron kneeled beside them. It was too late, though. She watched as Fred's eyes stared into the air, but not really seeing. She watched as he drifted away, the same friendly face disappearing forever.

"No!" Hermione screamed. She snapped her eyes open and began searching for him, before realising where she was.

She had been dreaming again and...

"Hermione, shut up!"

...she had unfortunately woken up the whole house up.

It had had been a year since Fred Weasley, was murdered during the Final Battle at Hogwarts.

It had been a year and the hole in her heart had still not healed. The nightmares were getting worse as each night passed.

Those days she would do anything to numb the pain. The pain of his death and the pain of regret- she never had the chance to tell Fred how she really felt about him, never had the chance to find out if he felt the same way.

I guess I never will, logic told her.

The thought was too tortuous, Hermione washed the thought away. She was always torturing herself with these guilt-ridden thoughts. She looked up through the curtains to see the crack of dawn -disturbing the small chance of falling asleep and decided it was worthless to try- and crept downstairs for an early breakfast.


	2. Chapter 2

The halls were eerie and bare. Not a sound could be heard but the wisp of the wind outside. It was so quiet the sound of a pin dropping could be enough to wake everyone up, again and she definitely did not want to disturb the house for a second time.

Hermione cautiously chose her steps, one-by-one down the creaking staircase, making sure not to make too much noise. All was quiet until . . . Hoot!

Hermione skid to a stop, panelling every corner of the house with her eyes. She looked to see Pigwidgeon (Ron's owl) hooting on the staircase and doing cartwheels here and there. Hermione sighed with relief as she tiptoed the rest of the way down the staircase.

"Couldn't sleep, either?", a voice called in the same tone as Pigwidgeon, making Hermione jump.

Hermione strained her eyes as she tried to make out the figure that was now watching her.

Ron was sitting at the table drinking his (now-cold) coffee.

"'Had trouble sleeping." Hermione mumbled back.

"You look as pale as a ghost, Ron."

"Come sit with me." - Ron gestured to a chair encased in a green and white cushion that was piled with parchments and spilled ink.

"What's this?" Hermione asked on closer inspection.

"Oh, that? That's nothing", he retorted back, smiling tiredly.

"Come on, what is it?",she began playfully.

"No, please! It's nothing. At least not yet!" , Ron begged.

"Aha! So it is something!", Hermione teased.

No reply.

A smile reached Hermione's face as she leaped toward the parchment.

"No! Hermione, don't!" Ron bellowed!

"Shh! You'll wake everyone up!" Hermione joked.

"Oh yeah, like a certain someone did last night, eh?" Ron laughed as he scraped his chair across the floor.

"Ron, what are you...", Hermione began but could not finish because Ron was tickling her persistently and making her giggle.

"Ron! Okay, okay, I give up! I give up!", Hermione giggled hysterically as she threw the parchment back down onto the chair.

He eventually gave up tickling and decided to settle for a cuddle instead.

Hermione wished she could savour the moment more as she embraced Ron warmly.

"So why are you really here, Hermione?", he said softly?

I've never heard of a Hermione Granger not being able to sleep. Normally you sleep like my dad!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow as Ron pretended to be his dad snoring. In Hermione's mind he looked more like a yawning dog.

"Hey! I do not sleep like that! For your information I sleep like a lady!" she protested.

She glanced through the window at the orange sunrise for a moment. It was still quite early in the morning.

"Okay, okay smarty-pants!", he said, clutching Hermione's waist tighter as they hugged.

Hermione told Ron about her nightmare, worried that he might be upset by it.

But all Ron said was, "Oh. Well you know nightmares are only created so that we can be glad we aren't in a worse situation. And believe me, none of us want to go through that can you do me a favour and not mention it to everyone else? They're still a bit sensitive about it."

He said it so quietly that it was merely a whisper and with a deep sigh he was clutching Hermione's waist tighter as they hugged.

Hermione felt sympathy for Ron because it was obvious that he was finding it difficult to speak about it too. 


	3. Chapter 3

The Weasley family sat down for breakfast later that morning. Arthur was whistling a merry tune whilst inspecting a muggle paper as - if it was a very important artifact that needed to be handled with gentle care, George was testing his new experiment - or as he called it, 'Weasley Water Explosion'- on Ginny, who was knitting a scarf for Hermione, Ron was eating as usual, Molly was busy cooking the breakfast again because Ron had eaten it all and Percy was boasting about his new job in Switzerland. And as for Harry he had left early in the morning to go to Gringotts Bank.

Everyone had seemed content but Hermione. All she could think about was the dream. What had it meant? What was it trying to tell her? She already knew that Fred was dead. Why was the dream still haunting her after a year? Nothing was making sense to Hermione right now and even cutting her roll in half seemed a difficult task. It seemed that her mind was purposely being slow with processing thoughts just to annoy her. Hermione put this up to an empty stomach and contemplated the dream while eating her roll and sausages. It just made no sense. She began to wonder if her mind was just playing tricks on her. She had been thinking a lot about Fred lately so it was no wonder that her subconscious was thinking about him during the nights. It seemed only logical that she would dream about him.

"So you wanna explain what the shouting was about last night, then?" George peered over the table at Hermione", found out you had a book overdue at the library?", he grinned.

Ron was following her gaze with a look of all-knowing in his eyes.

Hermione could feel his stare burning into her even if he was stuffing a sausage sideways into his mouth.

"Not that I can think of, no. It doesn't matter." Hermione replied.

"Come one, Hermione, you can tell me anything . . ." George pushed his eyebrows up - emphasising his eyes- with such an effort that Hermione burst out laughing.

"Ah, I knew I could get you smiling!" he winked.

"No, George, and even if I did trust you- which I don't- I wouldn't tell you."

She looked back at Ron, who had stopped watching her and was more focused on his sausage.

"Well I, personally, do not find it very funny. I need You know, I have a very important job to do. Swilnder has put me in his trust to make sure that the Wizard and Muggle whereabouts are never missing and I need my sleep!" Percy chimed in, scooping a spoon into his cereal.

"Hey, mum I think we have a rat infestation in the house!" George called out.

"Eek!" yelped Ginny who had just finished knitting Hermione's scarf and appeared at the table for breakfast.

". . .Because one just tried to but into my conversation!"

"George! Don't talk about your brother that way!", Molly could be heard over the sizzling of the sausages and bacon as they were being plated.

"Well he is a rat and he knows it. He worked for the man who was trying to kill Harry when me and Fred..."

SMASH!

A loud crash came from the kitchen. The house fell silent.

Everyone was staring at George - who seemed unfazed.

"What?"

"Don't mention that name!", Arthur hissed, who now seemed to be in a foul mood.

You can't expect me to forget about him just like that. He was part of the family, too, y'know. He meant everything to me and you just think that I'm just to forget about him? . . .That. . .that..."

George had turned crimson, tears weld in his eyes-". . .That I am going to just be like you and forget the one person who meant everything in the world to me?"

Molly began sobbing.

"George!", Arthur began.

"Don't upset your mother like that!"

"No, dad! I've had enough! You expect me to just accept the fact that my own brother- your son- worked for the man that was being controlled by Lord Voldemort? Well, no. Not any more. I can't stand being in this house. It feels so empty now. I feel empty. My twin, my other half is gone. And you wanna know something else?"

Arhur held her breath...

"I wish I died too!"

And he stormed out of the room, throwing his plate to the wall, merely inches away from Ginny's head.

Molly was shaking and Arthur was trying his best to console her.

Ginny was behind her mother, patting her shoulder soothingly and Percy was back to eating his cereal.

Hermione sat in her chair, bewildered and unmoving.

Ron had stopped eating entirely and was now staring at the smashed plates on the floor and the spoiled food.

"'Well, waste not, want not and all that", he said helping himself. 


End file.
